Being threatened, as we are, with an endless string of ropey yet lucrative Agatha Christie movies with Kenneth Branagh phoning in anuzzer rurbeesh turrrn as the Belgian sleuth, this comedy is a relief. It’s a likably silly and relentlessly camp whodunnit spoof from screenwriter Mark Chappell, centred on Agatha Christie’s long-running play The Mousetrap, and an imagined brutal homicide that took place backstage in its London West End theatre in 1953 – when the production was a mere 100 performances old.
A brash Hollywood director played by Adrien Brody, who is planning to bring The Mousetrap to the screen, is found horribly murdered in the costume department. Sam Rockwell and Saiorse Ronan have a droll sort of platonic police chemistry as the investigating officers: Inspector Stoppard (a nod to Tom Stoppard’s own spoof meta-mystery The Real Inspector Hound) and his overeager assistant with a silly peaked cap, Constable Stalker, possibly a homage to Tarkovsky or to the former deputy chief constable of Greater Manchester John Stalker. Tim Key (normally Alan Partridge’s sidekick on the parody show Mid- Morning Matters) is very funny as the glowering Met police commissioner.
